“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” —Ephesians 3:17-19
Many years ago, before kids even, I had a really sore back and didn’t know why. While visiting a doctor for a routine exam, I mentioned it to him; he asked me to hand over my purse. What? After the hand-off, he said that that was the problem with my back, my purse—it was too heavy.
Over the years since then, I have had various shape and size purses and handbags. For a long time when my children were little, my diaper bag doubled as a purse. It was heavy at first; as a new mom I felt more confident with a lot of stuff—just in case. But by the time my youngest came along, I was more accomplished at the mom thing and learned to carry less. Ever since the doctor informed me of the heavy handbag correlation with my back, I have remained relatively conscious of it.
Fast forward—my boys are now teenagers. They don’t need me to carry a lot of stuff for them anymore. For a while I was carrying a smaller bag, but it wouldn’t fit all my stuff; so I switched, I like having my big handbag—and I keep it full. My husband refuses to go into my bag because he says it’s too scary; my boys love it because I have something for everything. They laugh when I try to get something out of it because I usually have to root around and dig for a while before I find what I’m looking for. I prefer to think of my bag like Mary Poppins’ carpet bag—loaded with wonderful things—the guys call it the Mariana Trench.
The Mariana Trench is the deepest trench in the world at 7 miles deep (below the ocean floor). The bottom of this trench has been reached on only rare occasions. James Cameron, the famous filmmaker, reached the bottom during a excursion in 2012 and even made a film about it. I know this because my boys favorite movie is The Abyss (made by James Cameron) and we have watched it many times. An abyss is a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm.
This trench is the deepest point ever reached by man, and it happens to be as deep as water gets on earth. The Mariana Trench represents just one small part of the Earth's last, great frontier. Less than five percent of the entire ocean has been explored, and scientists have found that even the deep sea discoveries have only just begun—we’ve barely scratched the surface of its vastness.
This reminds me of God’s love for us—it’s deep, it’s wide, it’s vast, and it’s bottomless; often it surpasses our knowledge and understanding. There is a profound portion of Scripture found in Psalm 42:7: “deep calls unto deep.” This deep calling is the depth of which God is calling to us in Spirit. In other words this is the Spirit of God reaching deep into the Spirit of His children. He passionately desires a deep and meaningful relationship with us.
The meaning of the word deep in Psalm 42:7 also includes great. All of God; The Great I Am, lives in all of those who believe in Jesus Christ; He has great things in mind for you as you respond to the deeper things of His Kingdom. Going deeper into this relationship means that we must constantly seek and search in the depths of our soul.
If only less than five percent of the ocean has been explored thoroughly, and seventy-one percent of the earth’s surface is covered by ocean, that means there is a lot of exploring yet to be done. And while this is a vast undertaking it is nothing compared to the vastness of God Who created everything.
Don Sturiano of Faith Matters says (and I’m paraphrasing): “There are unfathomable riches in Him that we need to explore—and it will certainly take a lifetime to constantly explore what surpasses our knowledge. To keep your relationship with the Lord fresh and vital over the long haul is not automatic. It requires forethought, effort, and constant attention. It’s easy to be lulled into complacency in your Christian life. Things, even good things, become routine: Did my quiet time (check). Went to church (check). Gave money to missionaries (check). But you’ve drifted into not actively pursuing to know God more deeply.”
“Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider, nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in heaven or on earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is created above all things.”― Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
We must be passionately filled with the desire to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is the love of Christ, to ceaselessly explore His beautiful and perfect will for our lives, and to wholeheartedly dive headlong into the depths searching for the riches of His Word. We must earnestly and constantly seek deep and meaningful communion with our Lord Jesus Christ—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—Creator and Redeemer.
I might still carry a heavy handbag filled with stuff, one that I usually need to dig deep and root through to find what Im looking for at the moment. But that stuff won’t get in the way of digging deep to find what really matters—being filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” —Ephesians 3:17-19
